Joyas Voladoras Essay by Brian Doyle
Published in a 1972 issue of Esquire, Joyas Voladoras was soon anthologized, and indeed, so popular was the essay that the actual story of the heart was anthologized and published in the January 1st, 1974 issue of The New Yorker. It has been included in Best American Essays, Is Sex Necessary? Or Why You Feel the Way You Do, Hot: Living Through the Next 50 Years of Science, and in A New Literary History of America. It is taught and anthologized so frequently that it has taken on the status of a minor classic in creative nonfiction, not only because it has been anthologized frequently but also because it has been extensively discussed. The combination of its length, its complex structure, and its treatment of an urgent universal theme—namely, the human condition—has guaranteed a steady stream of critical commentary. But most essays about Joyas Voladoras deal in summary or, at best, reassert its author's enthusiasm for the writing. Perhaps the most detailed discussion of Joyas Voladoras can be found at Structures of the Heart, by Tina E. Y. Ko. The Carpenters: Edifice, Entrapment, And The Realistic Vision In Five Modern American Novels by Todd Bresnick, whose discussion emphasizes the essay's dependence upon what Bresnick calls Okri's Law (a phrase he has coined to describe the standard of excellence set by the passage from Nabokov's Lolita with which the essay opens). Other discussions of Joyas Voladoras can be found in Understanding Ann Beattie, by Kathryn N. Benesch; Lives and Works, by Hermione Lee that includes essays on BIRDS; The Art of Nature; Pleasure and Doubles. And though it is often praised, Joyas Voladoras has been attacked for the elliptical circumlocution of its crowded discussion. However, these critics generally posit no effort to imagine why Bristol's apparently various problems in the essay may actually work to create a unified thematic statement.
Monster by Sanyika Shakur yields a firsthand insight on gang warfare, prison, and redemption. “There are no gang experts except participants (xiii)” says Kody Scott aka. Monster. Monster vicariously explains the roots of the epidemic of South Central Los Angeles between the Crips and the Bloods that the world eventually witnessed on April 29, 1992. As readers we learn to not necessarily give gangs grace but do achieve a better understanding of their disposition to their distinct perception in life.
Brian Doyle’s “Joyas Voladoras” has the purpose to state that this particular love is the worst kind to have since he symbolizes the people who are addicted to this type of love as experiencing emotional turmoil and heartache, as expressed by the heart of the Hummingbird slowing down when it comes to rest.
Analysis Of The Book Joyas Voladoras By Brian Doyle | Bartleby
In the novella “Down the Rabbit Hole” by Pablo Juan Villalobos, the story revolves around the concept of innocence. What makes this novella different from other literature that discuss innocence is that the main character Tochtli does not actual move from innocence to experience but rather stays innocent but as the audience reads on they figure out that tochtli has moved further and further away from pure innocence. In the beginning of the novella in the short notes ahead innocence is explained in the context of the novella as being incomprehension. This is a theme that is revealed throughout the entirety of the novella. The novella Down the rabbit hole sets the scene inside a palace of a later understood drug lord, who is the father of tochtli, the main character. Tochtli is only seven and therefor does not have an exact grip on what is happening around him. Juan pablo Villalobos however reveals information in such a way that the truth escapes the innocent mind of tochtli but screams out to the readers.
"Joyas Voladoras" is a single sentence that offers a touching meditation on the metaphorical heart, a key motif and indeed the emotional core of Brian Doyle's collection of short essays also titled Joyas Voladoras. The overall structure of the essay echoes the relationship Doyle describes between the hummingbird and the blue whale by reflecting the contrasting scales and speeds of different modes of life. The essay changes point of view from the cosmic to the particular and back again, arcing from the brief flame of individual life back to the wider perspective of the stars. This multiple magnification lends a Borgesian sense of wonder and the infinite to the essay, reinforcing its attempt to elevate a relatable impulse. Doyle enhances his insight and presses his point by building a dense web of simile and metaphor throughout the essay both for the work's many subjects and its general themes of contrasts and harmonies. Although powerful in his own right, his encapsulation of the theme in the title of the collection emphasizes his message of a multi-faceted and diverse inward experience emphasized by the focus on the heart over the sole organ that operates from birth to death and cannot survive outside of the body, embodied in the essay's surprising final sentence. By carefully interweaving raw facts with an unembarrassed earnestness and an eye for strong metaphor and simile, Doyle has crafted a piece that can easily catch the reader, drawing them in by their intellect even as he speaks to their emotions and sense of scale.
In Brian Doyle’s article, “Joyas Voladoras”, Doyle feels comfortable enough to speak for the audience, implying that we have all grown up thinking the same, which helps convey his thesis of the inevitable outcome of the heart. He states that individuals, as children, often tend to believe that there will be another person that will help nourish and sustain them as they grow older, but continues to say that as we grow older, we come to an understanding that this way of thinking is nothing but a delusion. Doyle says that, in a sense, that no matter the abundance of people there are in one’s life, one will know that they will leave this world alone with numerous experiences. In the last paragraph of the article, it begins by saying that humans
Form and Content The title of Brian Doyle's essay is short and direct - "Joyas Voladoras," which means "flying jewels" in Spanish. The essay is written in short, concise sentences, descriptive and evocative of the details of hummingbirds and hearts. Each paragraph begins with a sentence that establishes the main theme and then moves on to describe the topic. This repetition of sentences effectively establishes the theme and makes the essay's meaning clear and unforgettable. From the first sentence, the reader is pulled into the vigor and speed of a hummingbird in flight and from there to the impetuous flight through life itself. The racing pace of the hummingbird is slowed to the trembling of a new heart. The scene is tender and emotional, and the reader is prompted to experience an intimacy he might never otherwise notice. The time that it takes a hummingbird to pause at a flower lasts but a second, yet it is enormous. It drinks a powerful nectar and burps, refuels, and quickens again. The reader is moved by the ferocious spirit that drives the fragile little creature. The reader is familiar with the speed at which a hummingbird hums, but the speed and power of the heart of a hummingbird, more than a thousand beats a minute, are overwhelming as explained by the author. The subject shifts from the physical heart of a hummingbird to human hearts. Death is constantly somewhere between comprehension of the deeply felt emotions, and the taste of them lasts but a second. Accessible comparisons allow the reader to slow the breath and rapid beat of his own heart and appreciate its power. The reader feels the suspension of new life created by the heart's massive force. The reader senses that life itself is suspended at its heartbeats, becomes the experience of hearts of any size, and is genuinely frightened once the beauty exposed disappears.
Analysis of Joyas Voladoras by Brian Doyle | Free Essay Example
The hummingbird is the only bird who can fly backward. Like light, like time, it loops and is free. Joyas Voladoras, treasure of flying crowns, jewel cases of tiny hearts' delicate beauty. The hummingbird does not have much a heart, as we understand it; it is the size of a pencil eraser. On one level, this seems very incredible. But is not so small a thing possible, hardly bigger than the egg you may have laid in your hands, and wept over. This speaking in aphorisms is another way in which the tiger is a story. The message is clear. A thing so excruciatingly tiny can still pump a sizable volume of the stuff of life. And that life force, which it spends so liberally, is not there by accident, but by design. The author thus uses the bird's heart as a metaphor for individual human lives, and by extension, all life. Indeed, the metaphor is not strained when he says: "As for the distribution of beauty in the animals: there are elephants, and there are butterflies, and in an elephant there is more beauty than in a butterfly", and in a butterfly there is more beauty than in all other birds. To the tiger, the bird is less than a meal, and lies it; caught, dead, forgotten. This suggests that for each of us, one life form is more precious than we may think; and that we must each find the life form whose life force beats within us, and protect it as fiercely as a tiger would protect its cubs. The hummingbird's strong heart is very much like ours, beating at a constant rhythm. But the similarity ends there. The hummingbird's heart can adjust to the demands of an increased environment, and pulsate up to 1260 beats per minute. Occasionally, we may feel as though our hearts are fluttering as fast, propelled by the stresses of our environment. It is then that we have to take a leaf from the book of the hummingbird's heart: "Joyas Voladoras, diminant Irreplaceable diamonds, a carat at most, so small, so large, in the light it radiates, in the force it exerts." We ought to call on our inner strength to pull us through... the ability to concentrate all our energies at a time when we need it most, and we must provide for other people, especially like a guardian angel whenever they are called to do so.
What is the authors purpose for Joyas Voladoras
The translation of this Spanish phrase, which could be rendered as "hummingbird-sized jewels" or "flying jewels," suggests a number of possible themes, including the apparent sweetness of life and the dazzling appearance of beautiful things. Hummingbirds represent many of these same ideas, as can be seen in the story's description of the birds hovering, shimmering, over bright zinnias, towering proud and delicate above the wilting ground. Quite different from the stately motion of the elephant with its passionless eyes is the quick and somewhat desperate appearance of the hummingbird with its frantically beating heart, the mechanics of which must remain largely hidden lest the true ferocity of this wild strength be known. This symbol of both energy and grace, of will and determination, also symbolizes the apparent contradictions reconciled in the theme of the story, the intersection of dazzling appearance and underlying reality. Contrasts and contradictions speak to the emotional and intellectual heart of this piece. From the opening description of the two chambers of the human heart and the contrasting nature of its blood flows to the conceptual core of the story, the meeting of boundless energy and physical frailty, it is this thematic paradox that creates the beating strength of the essay. Lists drive this dichotomy home. The first ten numbered paragraphs are one sentence long, although the long sentences do contain many descriptive clauses, colorful active verbs, and clear contrasts. For instance, the third paragraph reflects on various physical comparisons, embolisms, fingernails, speedskaters. The fourth compares the heart itself to one of Jasper Johns' flagstone, and the fifth calls it "blind" and reflects on its impact. These short paragraphs and shorter sentences help to provide a sense of play, as well as a heightened tension that is realized in the story's second thematic escape.